Another Photo Trip Back Home

While I enjoy taking photos while I'm out and about here in Iowa, I figured I'd take another trip (via photo) back "home" to the Southwest.

I say "home," because my maternal grandparents spent just about their whole lives in the Southwest, namely in El Paso, TX. My mom and her brothers were raised in El Paso. I spent the first three or so years of my life in El Paso. After my parents and I moved away, I still took many, many trips back to the Southwest to visit my grandparents regularly. I've even got a number of family members who still live in the area. Plus, I was stationed in the Southwest on two different occasions during the years I spent in the Air Force (in Tucson, AZ, and Alamogordo, NM).

Even when I was stationed elsewhere, I found myself in the Southwest, either for work or more often, on vacation.

So basically, the Southwest like home to me - my first home, my original home. (Chicago - or Arlington Heights, more specifically, is my "home of record" for the military, because that's where I'd been living when I'd gone on active duty . . . but that's a whole 'nother story.)

Anyway, when Andrew and I were stationed in Massachusetts for four years, we found ourselves in Las Vegas, NV for a week-long conference for work (October 2004). After we'd wrapped up on the last day, we had a bit of time for sightseeing; we took the opportunity to go to the Hoover Dam, a nice day-trip distance from the sensory overload known as Vegas (which I really enjoy, by the way). Not only was the Hoover Dam impressive on its own merits, the scenery to and from the Hoover Dam was spectacular!

So here are a few photos I thought I'd share. The quality isn't the best - I'd used one of those single-use "disposable" cameras (with film in it); anyway, their quality declined even further after I'd uploaded the photos and had them transferred from one online storage site to another. (The negatives, sadly, were lost/ruined in my numerous moves from one part of the country to another.)

(Again, you can click on each photo for a somewhat larger view.)

The reservoir, on one side.

The river, on the other side.

Andrew's looking down that dizzying downward distance.

Okay, so Little Merry Sunshine gave me this idea . . .

Some of you may know that I enjoy reading a blog called Little Merry Sunshine, authored by fellow Lake Forest College (LFC) alumna and classmate of mine, Jessica Gardner, LFC Class of 1993. I know I've mentioned her (and her blog) before, but I have to mention her again, because she gave me the idea for this particular blog post.

A few days ago, she posted her "Bucket List" - a list of things she wants to accomplish in her lifetime. Click here for her "Bucket List" blog post found on her Little Merry Sunshine blog.

Well, after reading her post, realizing I'd accomplished a few things on her list, and wanting to accomplish a few other things on her list, I decided that was a sign I'd better do my own bucket list.

So here's my list, in no particular order - keep in mind, it's a work in progress, so I may have to add things as I go along, and definitely check things off as I go along:

1. Travel to Italy (specifically, Positano, among other Italian destinations), Spain, France, Greece, England, Scotland, Wales, and other European destinations with Livie and Andrew. See the sights, eat some tasty local cuisine.

2. Travel to Mexico (Oaxaca, Puebla, and other locations) with Livie and Andrew. Again, see the sights, and eat some tasty local cuisine (mole poblano comes to mind).

3. Travel to National Parks around the country with Livie and Andrew. The Grand Canyon, Acadia National Park, Minute Man National Historical Park, Bryce Canyon, Glacier National Park, Carlsbad Caverns, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park are at the top of the list.

4. Take a cross-country family trip with Livie and Andrew in a nice RV.

5. Take Route 66 from Chicago to L.A. – maybe this one could be in an RV.

6. Learn the ins-and-outs of Santa Fe and learning it by heart by spending lots of time there. Same with other Southwestern locations.

7. Get reacquainted with Tucson, with Livie and Andrew.

8. Take Livie and Andrew to the Hoover Dam.

9. Record our travels in photos and writing.

10. Buy a horse that I can ride (hunters/jumpers/trails) and show.

11. Swimming lessons for Livie.

12. Take photography classes.

13. Earn M.A. in English or Creative Writing.

14. Write a novel (preferably a mystery) and have it published.

15. Earn a “living” by writing novels.

16. Run the Army 10-miler.

17. Become a better cook.

18. Figure out how to make my grandmother’s tasty, homemade tacos.

19. Successfully grow my own garden, so my family can have fresh fruit and veggies in the summer.

20. Be completely debt-free.

21. Have a vacation home in the Southwest.

22. Get reacquainted with the Chicagoland area with Livie and Andrew.

23. Take Livie and Andrew to “Viva! El Paso” in McKelligan Canyon in El Paso, TX.

24. Spend a long weekend with Andrew in Las Vegas, NV, while Livie spends a fun long weekend with her Abuelita.

25. Take Livie to a Blackhawks home game.

26. Take Livie to watch a big horse show.

27. Be Livie’s groom when she rides in a big horse show (if she wants). 

28. Go to Disney World with Livie and Andrew.
29. Take Livie and Andrew to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
30. Ride in a helicopter.
31. Ride in a hot air balloon in Albuquerque.
32. Take a Grand Canyon helicopter tour.
33. Have a "herd" of Pembroke Welsh Corgis.
34. Take a ride with the Hurricane Hunters in one of their WC-130s.
35. Take Livie to an air show to see all the aircraft and watch a Thunderbirds performance. 
36. Take Livie on the big slide at the Iowa State Fair.
37. Take Livie to Concord, MA, where she was born.
38. Take Livie to Mike's Pastry in Boston's North End for some tasty cannoli.
39. Play polo again.
40. Have a great 40th birthday party (November 2010).
41. Take Livie and Andrew to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. As a veteran, it would be nice to see my name there. Plus, we can see the other memorials - like the WWII Memorial, in honor of my grandfather and great-uncles and take a few moments for quiet reflection.

I'll stick with this list for now. The number of items on this list will fluctuate as I accomplish things and add others.

It's painful!

I've been suffering from a bout of writer's block today. Ouch!

The construction across the street very distracting - heavy machinery is LOUD! Plus, it causes my house, my desk, my head to vibrate. Even if I listen to my ipod, I can feel my desk shaking every so often. Besides, today is not the day for me to listen to music while I try to write. I'm even distracted by my classical music. Normally it helps me focus. Nor does my Native American flute music help. I just feel too scatterbrained today and music is just not helping me "recover" from this latest bout writer's block.

I've been looking for a couple photos that I want to scan for tomorrow's "Memory Lane Friday" post. Guess what? I get distracted while flipping through my physical photo albums . . . and the online albums.

Some of these photos make me miss El Paso. As I look through these photos, I feel saudade for my grandparents' home. For the wonderful times I spent in El Paso. And even the not so wonderful times. Like when Livie came down with coxsackie and thrush and wouldn't nurse, wouldn't drink from a bottle, and Oma and I drove in the night, in the pouring rain, to William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Ft. Bliss.

So I sit here daydreaming about El Paso. About how I haven't ever gotten the chance to take Andrew (or Livie for that matter) to Viva! El Paso. About how nice the Ft. Bliss PX is. How I took my grandparents to Mass on base once (for Christmas, I think, when I was stationed in Tucson, and I'd driven to El Paso to celebrate the holiday).

Then I find the photos from Las Vegas in '04, and I want to go back and re-live the fun Andrew and I had while we were there - including our day trip to the Hoover Dam. You know what? They had this snack bar place there (on the NV side, I believe). I remember getting an ice cream cone. Soft serve. Vanilla. Nice and cold on a hot, cloudless October day in the Southwest. I remember going on and on about how good that ice cream was, and that I want to go back to the Hoover Dam, not only for the spectacular views of the Dam itself (and the engineering feat) but for the ice cream, too.

Of course, then I find photos from when Andrew and I were stationed in the greater Boston area. I miss going for seafood on a regular basis. I miss heading to Maine for a long weekend. Or how we were into ballroom dancing for nearly four years. And I miss the Minute Man National Historic Park in Concord, MA. And how Livie was born in Concord. I miss Bedford Farms ice cream, Bertucci's in Lexington, MA, that movie theater across the street from Bertucci's, where we saw March of the Penguins in October 2005. Natick, MA, where I had my wedding dress altered before our church wedding in December 2002.

I'm just easily distracted today. And I can't even blame it on the rain. It's sunny, though a little hazy today. Yesterday, I just felt blue, a little sad. It was rainy pretty much all day yesterday. All I could think of was that the weather dictates my moods. That shouldn't be the case! But now that the sun is showing itself, I still feel a little melancholy, like I can't quite shake it off completely, like it's lingering around after yesterday's dreary weather on purpose.

Of course, that's not true. Maybe I'll just go empty the dishwasher, because I think I heard the end-of-cycle beep. Perhaps some mindless chore will help snap me out of my writer's block.

But then again, looks like writing about it for the sake of complaining has helped a little bit, now hasn't it?

Brown

This is an assignment from a creative writing class. We had to choose a color and write a description of that color in first person, as if we were that color. We were limited to 250 words or less. I chose the color brown. Here it is . . .

I am NOT boring. I am not average. I am the power of brown.

I am sensual. Ever feel the velvety-smooth warmth of a molten-centered chocolate cake coat your tongue with luscious, sweet fullness? That would be me, as the epitome of satiety at the end of a luxurious meal. Or, if you’re looking for something more tactile with fewer calories, think of the glossiness of Salma Hayek’s long, flowing mane, dark enough to look nearly black. Or the coffee of Hugh Jackman’s eyes; with just a glance, he can make a woman swoon. Yep, me again. Brown.

I am all-natural. Think of me where I flourish, in the dust-ridden southwest. Sure, I look like grime, dirt, or simply the ground that you walk on. But have you ever taken a really good look? Watch me during a sunset in Santa Fe, or Phoenix, or Las Vegas. I look golden, like Midas himself graced me with his presence and touched me. Sometimes I look like fire, depending on how low the sun is in the horizon. Think of the Grand Canyon, where I can look royal, like regal purple herself. I am nature in all her glory, her palette of beauty.

Here’s a good one. Think of some commercials. Who delivers your boxes? This one makes me smile, especially during the holidays. You know exactly who I’m talking about. There is a company who describes itself as none other than “Brown.” I’m commerce itself.

Don’t call me boring. I’m brown.